AGENCY TESTIMONY
Growth and challenges of the Citizens Air Complaint Program
0:20:56
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102 sec
Commissioner Aggarwala discusses the significant growth of the Citizens Air Complaint Program and the challenges that have arisen as a result.
- Reports an increase in complaints from 9,000 in 2019 to over 80,000 in 2023, with projections of 120,000 for 2024
- Highlights the administration's investment in resources, including increased staff and automation processes
- Notes that despite a 5-fold increase in processing capability, complaint volume has grown by nearly 10 times
- Mentions agreements reached with large violators resulting in millions of dollars in fines paid to the city
Rohit T. Aggarwala
0:20:56
The program has grown exponentially with reports increasing from 9000 in 2019 to over 80,000 in 2023.
0:21:06
We have already surpassed 80,000 this year.
0:21:10
So we believe we are on track for a 120,000 in 2024.
0:21:17
In 2023, 95% of the cases DEP brought to oath resulted in a violation.
0:21:24
So resulted in a decision by the administrative law judge that that violation was legitimate.
0:21:33
The next slide, please.
0:21:34
This administration has also invested resources in this program.
0:21:38
Including increasing the number of BEC staff to process these complaints.
0:21:43
At my direction, BEC has also adopted automation processes that have accelerated processing times.
0:21:50
Altogether, we have increased our processing capability by roughly 5 times.
0:21:54
However, the number of complaints submitted has gone up nearly 10 times.
0:21:58
As a result, our processing times have nearly doubled.
0:22:02
We continue to pursue efficiencies in our processing, but the fact is that each video must be watched by one of our inspectors.
0:22:10
Which places a limit on how many we can process.
0:22:14
Several large companies have received many violations, and our colleagues at the law department have pursued the largest violators reaching agreements with several of them that have resulted in 1,000,000 of dollars of fines paid to the city.
0:22:27
As I said earlier, our goal is not to issue more fines.
0:22:31
Our goal is to reduce air pollution.
0:22:33
So we must use the civilian complaint program and idling violations as a tool to do that.
